La legge del mercato

I had the honor to watch the premiere of this beautiful film in Cannes. I am glad to see that there are still experienced directors that can make film like this one: relatively low budget, simple cinematography, a few but good actors, few locations but with a very good story telling. Stephane Brize' is able to tell his story in an entertaining way even if mainly using long uncut scenes and very simple camera setting. No shot and counter shot, none of the usual Hollywood techniques. The director take his time lingering to build tension and emotions.

Everything is based on the skills of the actors, with witty dialogues and situations that recalls the sitcom but with a dramatic treatment. It's an intelligent critic to the French society. Every young filmmaker should watch and learn from this film.

A very fine movie about life in the modern global economy. First the hero is cheated by a so-called training business center when he finds out there's no chance of his being hired for what he was trained in and the business knew it (see Trump and his so-called university -- but what do we expect from an illiterate egomaniac?). The hero who is barely hanging on to middle class life by his fingernails is constantly humiliated or badgered by experts who are "trying" to help. He winds up with a job at a box store in security where he sees people/customers humiliated, long term clerks fired for minor infractions caught on CCTV (that's the object, the co. -- a Walmart copycat -- is trying to trim down the staff and goes after long-term employees, one of whom commits suicide on the store premises). The hero also has a son with multiple sclerosis who has to pass inspection in order to qualify for college. This is what the social/economic net boils down to. The director is telling the truth ...

I love this kind of film. Fly on the wall and powerful. Nothing is spoon fed. It's one of the best ways to develop characters if its done well, and here the character journey is exceptional. Outstanding take on modern times and dealing with it. Thanks film makers. It's nice to have a break from violence and cheap thrills.

LA LOI DU MARCHÉ's main quality is its honesty. Lindon, as the cdntral character, portrays the current Everyman, with the added burden of a handicapped child, which makes things that much more difficult. Lindon's performance is first class in its simplicity and honesty, but his wife, and his fellow workers also do very well in their smaller parts.

Direction is interesting, often using cinema verité moves, and it keeps targeting the sordid nature of human survival in the current world.

This is the problem we all face: we work to survive and, as we do, we compete with others also trying to survive, and we survive by ratting on them, and exposing the illegalities they commit. Given that no human is a saint, it is obvious that it is only a matter of time before you find somehing to send someone out of the "paradise" of employment. And once that has happened, the way back into the job market is well nigh impossible.

That is the law of the market, a law where human rights are easily trampled under the weight of economic and performance considerations, and where spying on, and suspecting, fellow human beings is bread and butter.

Lindon's character is looking hard for a job to meet his child's treatment's costs, and he has to accept duties that most of us would probably feel dismayed about. And so does he, and that is his moral dilemma by movie's end.

LA LOI DU MARCHÉ is not easy to watch, but its honesty makes it a must.

A Ken Loach-a-like - showing real lives at a genuine pace, but without the hard edge. If the movie set out to show the crushing mundanity of the the lives of working class people, it succeeds. However, do not be put of by this, as the main protagonist manages to demonstrate a dignity throughout. Nevertheless, do not expect a hubris- cum-nemesis tale. It looks at the workaday politics that the majority of life's cannon fodder are forced to negotiate. A scene in which his performance at interview is analysed by peers is upsetting, demonstrating the schadenfreude characteristic of the socially-challenged, enjoying the notion that somebody is worse off than themselves... If you like Loach derivatives, you will certainly enjoy this.